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Joseph’s Story

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I had a 45 minute seizure on an Amtrak train on 12/19/12. My sister Calista realized it and my mom went to get help while my grandparents assisted me. We flew from Malta, MT to Billings that afternoon, and on 12/21/12 was flown to Colorado Children's in Aurora, CO after testing positive for influenza A. In Colorado I finally woke up as I recovered from the flu. Doctor's say I am a mystery as they don't know what came first, flu, seizure, encephalitis, etc.

Latest Journal Update

Warmer weather....New Challenges!

So, Joey has made some improvements since the last update in January! He is definitely making more sounds and we have added turtle, walk, ninja, and mater to his list of words. Although it still seems as though he cannot always say what he wants, these words are becoming easier for him. He especially likes to make me jealous by only saying this for dad!!! No kidding, I can sometimes catch it if I am close by where he can't see me but I can still hear him, but his hearing is quite keen so it's difficult for me to be sneaky enough. He thinks its pretty funny when I do catch him though.

Joey has gotten quite good at opening things whether it be boxes, jars or bottles. Something we are grateful for as you can tell by his huge smile how proud of himself he is and seeing that makes up for the messes....MOST of the time! Lol On one occasion he even managed to peel a Clementine, not sure how as we found the peeling afterward and didn't actually witness it, but he did it all while keeping the peel in one perfect piece!! I had a picture but unfortunately it was on my phone which was stolen on Easter :(

I don't think anybody was more ready for spring to arrive than Joey this year. He was getting pretty antsy spending so much time indoors this winter. He proved yesterday that he is ready to hit the lakes this summer by jumping in and going for a swim near the middle school. Although he was quite cold, and the poor girl that was with him nearly had a heart attack, they survived and we now know to either choose a different park or be prepared to jump in!!! (I think we'll just stick with different parks!).

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to our new staff as they are doing an amazing job!! I am so excited that we are getting such a good team together finally!! They work very hard and I am thrilled that despite law changes banning the use of a gait belt or hanging onto Joey, they still are willing to take him places and try new things with him.

That's all for now...we are anticipating big changes over the next few months as he gets to get out and do many of the things we used to do but were unable to last year!!!